Ice Fichin'

Well it's January in North central Wisconsin and Lake Wausau has 18" of ice on it. The temps are in the single digit but that did not stop us from heading out to the lake to set some tip-ups and see if we could not tie into some Pike. As a flyrodder it's hard for me to get excited about jigging a foot and a half long pole up and down waiting for a bluegill or perch to take the waxy off my hook, so I tried using a series of weighted wet flies and caddis pupae imitations instead but as we would find out in practice and from talking to an adjacent group of hardwater fisherman "the pan fish just aint bitin' " They of course knew this because in their arsenal of jigging rods and tip-ups they also carry a small neutrally buoyant underwater camera that gives them the advantage over the fish. The information obtained from this camera was that the panfish just were not biting. We knew this because in four hours of jigging, we had only caught one bluegill. Advantage fish!
In the end it was a great day, Josh landed a Northern Pike at 32" and my girlfriend Andi landed a 31 inch northern. I guess it was just a day for the Sommerfeldt's. I was too busy finding out if the pan fish were biting.

This little guy was spotted on the new critter cam.

A nice Dolly

Just a nice Dolly I thought I would throw up here. I missed out on catching one of those really clowned up Dollies that look like a Brook Trout wearing drag.

Well this was a fun night. We have been having really warm weather for a Wisconsin October. My buddy and I went out and after a few hours of no action the bass just started hitting poppers. The action was almost every cast! Here is Smanz with a nice little Large Mouth.

My girlfriend Andi and I Headed Up to Hayward, WI to fly fish for Muskies. She hooked into the first Musky right at the put in and had it up against the boat but it would seem our guide did a poor job of having the net ready...pretty basic if you ask me. We had 7 follows a few strikes but went home only landing one pike. Oh well thats Musky fishing.

Lake Notagonnatellya Pike

Took the float tube out on a spring fed lake I like. Got into a nice pike using an EP fly. These fish really get my heart pumping. I was alone and on the float tube so the photo sucks. I am working on my camera skills....it's a work in progress.

More AK Pics

Just thought I would post some more pics from Alaska.